Local furniture producers have lashed out at Parliament for importing furniture from China to refurbish their chamber.
Parliament resumed sitting on Tuesday to a newly refurbished chamber but it later emerged that the furniture was imported from China.
Some Members of Parliament (MPs) expressed their displeasure at the decision by the leadership of the to disregard the President’s encouragement for Ghanaians and institutions to use made in Ghana products.
But the leadership of Parliament explained that the importation was made due to the limited time it had to put the chamber in order for MPs to resume work.
[contextly_sidebar id=”sHZwCiVRN8kwcaAi7YXyM6mjZ6YAlyca”]The Deputy Majority Leader, Alfred Kwame Agbesi told Citi News, the quantity of furniture needed for the refurbishment could not have been produced on time by local furniture companies.
But the importation of the furniture from China has angered local furniture producers.
Speaking to Citi Business News, the Chief Executive Officer of Agorwu Furniture, Samuel Kwame Diabo, said the move by Parliament is disrespectful and a way to satisfy their pay masters.
“To be very honest, we are totally disappointed in those people who took that particular decision to import foreign furniture to our Parliament House,” he fumed.
He was of the opinion that local industry should have been given the opportunity to exhibit their products in Parliament “but this couldn’t happen.”
Mr. Diabo disclosed that his company, Agorwu Furniture, is one of the largest furniture companies in Ghana and is very capable of delivering within Parliament’s deadline.
“Our labour force is about 150 and we would have been able to deliver that their order and even beyond that,” he said.
According to him, the government had recently approved about $500,000 for the procurement of equipment for Agorwu Furniture to enable the company produce furniture to meet foreign standards.
“To be very honest, Agorwu is very well equipped and we have a few other companies in the system that are very good and when we put our heads together, we should be able to put our Parliament in good shape with our own local products, he remarked.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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